If my TikTok for you page shows me one more video about the lunar eclipse happening this week, I’m going to lose it. For those unfamiliar with astrology, the eclipse in Scorpio on May 5 marks a big release or chapter ending for everyone. Don’t quite know what’s in store, but I’ll just have to keep myself distracted with this weekend’s art happenings (and all the Met Gala looks inspired by Karl Lagerfeld’s cat). I’m Steven Vargas, your L.A. Goes Out host, and here are the top events for this upcoming weekend recommended by the crew.
Thornton Dial: Handwriting on the Wall
Blum & Poe in Mid-City presents Thornton Dial’s first major solo exhibition in Los Angeles. Handwriting on the Wall showcases the Alabama artist’s work that encapsulates the Black experience in the South. The exhibition incorporates his paintings and assemblage pieces made up of found materials, retelling Black American history from Jim Crow to the first Black president. And in the piece Garden of Eden, Dial shares his meditation on mortality right before his death in 2016. This recommendation comes from The Times’ Carolina A. Miranda. The gallery will also have a group exhibition titled By Any Means Necessary, curated by Dial’s friend and fellow artist Lonnie Holley, that will be in conversation with Handwriting on the Wall.